People come to private investigators to seek help in different situations. Lawyers use investigators to gather information for their cases; business executives hire investigators to discover fraudulent activity within their companies; and convicted felons hire investigators to find evidence to prove their innocence. Investigators are expected to provide the necessary assistance in a manner that is ethical, accountable, and thorough. While many investigators are professional and ethical, currently it is difficult to police unethical practitioners and prevent them from taking advantage of those who have hired them.
Code of Professional Conduct, Second Edition has been prepared to advance the reputation of the profession; to educate investigators, and those who hire them, on the ethics, conduct, and services of practitioners; and to insure that excellent standards of service and professionalism are upheld at all times. While a majority of the professional investigator associations already invoke a code of ethics, the codes vary greatly, can lack important content, and change over time. Author and private investigator Kitty Hailey has compiled, compared and contrasted many of these codes. She has categorized and restated them with a strong emphasis on clarity of meaning and simplicity of language. In this new edition she has revised and updated them as needs have changed in the investigative community.
Many of these international, national, state, and local ethical codes are individually lacking in content and coverage. When combined, they are becoming an all-encompassing platform that is establishing a new level of ethics and service to which all investigators must aspire. The bar is high, but the profession demands the most diligent, honest, and professional conduct among its practitioners.
Investigators will value this book as a tool to verify that they, and the services they provide meet the highest ethical and professional standards in their profession. For those hiring investigators, this book is invaluable in allowing them to assure themselves that the investigators hired are indeed providing investigative services in an ethical and professional manner.